All that glitter is gold..

Last Tuesday, we had this safety drill, the same way we do every year on 19th September, anniversary of the 1985 quake. It was at 11 am across the whole city. But, at that time, a lot of people took it as a nuisance. I was at college and didn’t bother to go to the safety points. Lots of people were complaining about lost classes, or just fooling around. And then 2 hours later, it started trembling. We were still joking about it when the real one hit. Like, bad. You couldn’t even walk straight.

A 26-year old Mexican citizen, Launian, apprised and filled in about the horrendous and calamitous earthquake that hit the state of Pubela, somewhat 150 kms apart from Mexico City.

On 19th September, 1985, an earthquake registering 8.1 on the Richter scale struck Mexico City around 7:17 am. On 19th September, 2017, another earthquake with a magnitude of 7.1 struck the state of Pubela, after 32 years with 6 hours apart, around 1:14 pm. They have this safety drill all over the City every year to commemorate the ’85 quake and it happened a couple hours later after the drill in his college.

Talking about the appalling and horrifying scenes and expressing his feelings he said:

Most of my friends and myself grew up with stories of the ’85 quake, seeing pictures of the devastation. Buildings I’ve known my whole life are gone, just like that. I went there to help on Tuesday night, and even though all I did was help to clear the rubble, it was such a strong experience. At one point, the human chain passed down a drum for us to throw to the garbage truck and I kept wondering, who used to play that drum? Were they good? Did they play rock? Punk? Have they even thought about their drums? Are they even still alive?

Two major earthquakes struck Mexico in just one month. The other one was on 8th September with a magnitude of 8.1. The Capital is specially at risk of major earthquakes due to its location. Because of the soft and wet ground underneath, Mexico City is too vulnerable to earthquakes. Its soil is prone to liquefaction, which is the ability to transform dirt into a dense liquid when sufficiently churned, wrote a seismologist of the Southern California Earthquake Center. In the opinion of Behzaid Fatahi, associate professor of geotechnical and earthquake engineering at the University of Technology Sydney, earthquakes start so deep in the ground and move so fast – 50 times faster than a category 5 hurricane – so it’s almost impossible to issue a warning well in advance.

No wonder it was a shocking a moment for everyone but the best part was how people actually came forward to volunteer and help. They were flocking down the streets, just looking for something to do, something to help with. According to Launian a couple hours after the quake they were already turning down volunteers because there were too many of them and trucks with food and cloths and healing items that the traffic had collapsed.

They have all heard and read about the ’85 quake about how people rallied together on their own, went out to the streets and organized themselves to help because they government hadn’t reacted for days. Seeing it all themselves was just so different, kids and old people all helping equally. An old man dropping a couple of bags of sugar on a donation table.

Launian is now with his family but he is still worried. They are all worried, tensed, tired and scared. Almost is everyone is with their families now with high hopes and aspiration trying to do what they can, where they can and when they can.

A picture, that was taken last night showing human chains passing down donations from the storage area to the trucks depicts that no matter who we are, who we belong to, what our race is, what language do we speak, we all are humans and humanity and chivalry is not dead yet.

While departing he left us all a message:

And, a word of advice from someone who never thought would live in a disaster zone? Grab your phone and tell people you love them. If you fought with a friend, or your parents. Call them and tell them you love them, even if you don’t solve things. When you are waiting with your phone in your hand, without signal, without landlines, without electricity, just for a sign that they are ok, that’s when you realize we don’t say “I love you” enough. I know it’s cheesy, but damn me to all hells if it isn’t true.

It all started on Wednesday, 27th July 2016, when i was working usually in the office where i used to work before and suddenly i came to know that the joining date had been announced on the website and that i had to report a week later, on Wednesday, 3rd August 2016. Finally, a nuclear power plant, my dream place where i had planned to be working since my intermediate. In such a short notice period i had to resign from SSGCL instantly, making the HR department mad, having the colleagues confused and astonished to leave them on the very next day. Many people told me against my decision including the SGM HR telling me that the place where i am going is not as charming as this corporate organization (which i realized it later after i actually got into the plant).

This is how life works, you meet people, make memories and then you move on. That didn’t prove to be a very bad decision of my life. It was a whole new experience, having people from all over the country with different style, accents, body languages, hair styles, “heads & eyes” and of course the “external” beauty (internal doesn’t matter anyway). I am not sure about the others (and who cares anyway because they say don’t let the behavior of others destroy your inner peace; just kidding) but i actually learned a whole lot and experienced so many different aspects of life. Hostel life, a new thing for me, turned out to be one of the best things. Never before i knew that people who have never been to a sea before in their lives, when they see it for the first time how they actually react to its vastness and enormousness with no boundaries, more lively and vigorous than how it is shown in the movies.

The whole year proved to be the finest of all the past academic years. Including group studies in the rooms, staying up late the night before exams, classroom training and the fear of TDs, on-job training and the long and harsh shifts (for chemical and electrical engineers; they paid for those cruel circuit diagrams and ruthless PIDs), of course the Chinese Language, late night games of badminton and volleyball, mess and the “quality” food, the beaches and the bazars and the museums and the long bike rides, rains, sea breezes, Ramadhan and suhoor and iftars, and then there were the mishaps, setbacks, misfortunes which, looking back now, don’t matter at all.

There’s so much else to it which can’t all be described in mere words, and that is gonna live with us forever. They say all those moments will be lost in time, like tears in the rain but our group will beg to differ. In short, life happened. In all its beauty, pleasures, contentments and delights. Life happened, classified yet not so classified..

Does it give you an immense pleasure when you backbite behind your friends and fellows? Do you savour gossiping around and spreading around rumors about people? Or talking about other people seems fun and a source or amusement and gratification?

You could discuss about the rising sun. You could discuss about stars.. About the northern star, Polaris, and about how people use it to navigate.

You could discuss about how you feel around certain groups of people, how their behavior makes you feel.

You could discuss about Knight in the shining armor even though there isn’t one.

You could discuss about cars. You could discuss about the gas fired airplane engines.

You could discuss about politics and how you feel about it.

You could discuss about crystals and pots and whether you want to try them.

You could discuss about the directions. You could discuss about your survival skills.

You could discuss about the Earth, mars, the Moon.

You could discuss about oil and other fossil fuels. You could discuss about your attitude towards the renewable energy.

You could discuss about the current elevating surge of inflation.

You could discuss about CPEC and its pros and cons.

You could discuss about your ideas and conclusions on Darwin’s Theory.

You could discuss about Trump and his promises and future plans.

You could discuss about motorway and the increased toll tax by 400%.

You could discuss about nature, calm sea, sea gulls flying with fishes in their beak, mountains, glaciers, deserts, platues.

You could discuss about Saladin, Tarek, Bin Qasim, Taimoor. You could discuss about the Mughals, Durrani, Tughlaq and Khilji.

You could discuss about life as long you are breathing cause life is too short to waste it discussing other people. And if you couldn’t, just mind your own business at least.